Thus, we are able to effectively peer into the historical context that surrounded these famous words of Jesus, reflecting on the fact that God’s love for the world, His sending of His Son, the necessity of belief, and the subsequent reception of eternal life, could and would cause Nicodemus to hearken to the “beginning of the story,” and the story of Adam and his fall. It does not end there, however. When a teacher of Israel, be it Nicodemus or Jesus, spoke of God’s son, such language would not be restricted to thoughts of messiah and kingship, or to Adam alone. Speaking in such a way would also direct one’s thoughts to Israel itself. This would be in connection with Israel’s most powerful, popular, and deterministic story, which was that of the Egyptian exodus, which had been personally conducted by God, through Israel’s greatest leader, that being Moses.
In the fourth chapter of Exodus, Moses is given his instructions. He is told by the Lord, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go” (4:21). This is the pretext for the especially important statement (for our purposes) that follows, which is “You must say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn, and I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’”’” (4:22-23a). So here, quite importantly, as it relates to the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, and what it is that Jesus is attempting to communicate to Nicodemus about Himself and about His place within God’s long running redemptive plan for His creation, we find Israel referred to as the son of God. Israel, in a sense, is picking up the story from where it was left off by the first son of God, Adam. The son Adam was exiled from the garden and dragged all of humanity and creation down with him, and here we meet up with the son, Israel, in an exilic state of oppression and subjugation. This son, Israel, is going to be liberated from his bondage, and following the liberation (essentially a restoration and a resurrection), is going to be brought under a covenant and given responsibilities related to that covenant. We know that covenant as “the law,” and the responsibility, in essence, is to rightly bear the divine image and reflect God’s glory into the world in such a way that it will cause all men to seek their God, especially as they see the blessings that are enjoyed by this particular people, Israel.
Israel was to be the representative of the Creator into the world. Like Adam, they were given a realm of dominion that they were to occupy and in which they were to have dominion. Whereas for Adam it was the whole of the creation, for Israel it was the land that had been promised to them through God’s covenant with Abraham---the firstfruits of an entire creation that was to be redeemed. There, they were to be fruitful and multiply. Their successful occupation of their land, and all that went with it, would be accomplished by their adherence to the basic premises of the covenant, which were to avoid idolatry, to reverence the sanctuary, and to keep the Sabbaths that God had ordained for them. If they succeeded in these areas, they would be blessed. If they failed, they would be cursed. This was a matter of trust. In this area, they also stand alongside Adam. Adam’s successful occupation of the land would be accomplished by adherence to the premises of the covenant that God gave to him, which was to freely eat of all the trees of the garden, save one. Blessing or cursing would result. Of course, Adam chose to violate the covenant, so it was the curse that came upon him and the creation.
This scene would repeat itself, on the whole, with Israel. Primarily, they would repeatedly fall into idolatry, and therefore, rather than perpetually enjoying the blessings of God (though there would be times of great blessing), times of cursing were their regular lot. The cursing was exile, meaning they were relegated to a place outside of God’s purposes for them, and this generally meant subjection to a foreign power, which we can regularly see from the time of the Judges (following the death of Joshua), right on through the entirety of their history that led up to Jesus. God’s cursing meant death, destruction, shame, and exile, which meant that Israel was in almost constant need of exodus. Because shame and exile were the equivalent of death, Israel was constantly in need of resurrection. They were in constant need of eternal life, which would mean rescue, deliverance, redemption, salvation, restoration, and new creation, all of which is summed up in “resurrection.” Their position however, because they did not trust a God that continually proved Himself to be faithful in both blessing and cursing, was that of constant perishing.
God’s intention for Israel was for it to be a light to all the world, but not only did they not achieve this, but by the time of Jesus, Israel had turned completely inward, choosing only to be a light for itself, to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Clearly, this was not what God intended for His one and only son, be it Adam or Israel. Thus, taking all of this into consideration, as would Nicodemus, it could be said that God loved the world that He had created so much, that He raised up Israel, His son, and gave him a commission and an ordination to be the representative of His love and power into the world. This, of course, was completely contingent on Israel believing in Him and in His covenantal promises. Had they believed, they, and the world through them, would have enjoyed eternal life. However, they did not believe in God, so ultimately, the perishing of an almost continuous exile had been their experience, and because of that, the world did not experience God’s glory and redemption, but remained in its perished condition as well.
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